


You Want a Revelation

by goblinish



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Pack, Pre-Het, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-25
Updated: 2012-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goblinish/pseuds/goblinish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek had someone in mind for her. Erica has her own mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Want a Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> This is more pack fic than anything else, set in a future where the characters have had a chance to grow into each other and become something that resembles a family. A very odd family. This was written before season three, and so doesn't reflect any of the casting changes. I didn't really care about the casting changes.

**You Want a Revelation**

 

 _"This one left them all behind,"_ the grandfather said, and so did the dead rabbit Erica was chewing on. 

As it was highly unlikely that the Thumper-lookalike she'd chased for days and days and days would decide to speak its last words in the voice of Peter Falk, Erica decided she was probably dreaming, and opted to wake up.

The credits were rolling on _The Princess Bride_ , and her head was on Stiles's knee. The room stirred. Scott and Allison started making getting-ready-to-leave motions, stretching half-heartedly and climbing out of the armchair they had shared. Erica turned her gaze to the television - or rather, she would have, but Isaac's dark curls (Isaac sitting on the floor in front of the couch) blocked her view. 

She was comfortable. Okay, lazy. She thought about sitting up - she'd have to actually _move_ (downside), but it would afford a better view than Isaac's hair. 

She thought about it a little more. She decided to give it a try, and sat up, slow and comfortable. She made it to vertical, considered it a win, and hummed a bit before letting her head slump on Stiles's shoulder. Erica looked around the room, tiredly watchful. 

In front of her, Isaac clambered up to stand. He yawned, far more comfortable in his skin than he used to be. "It for me," he said through a yawn. "Good night, guys," he said, nodded to Derek on the couch, and headed upstairs to his room. Erica offered a half-assed wave at his back.

Scott slipped an arm around Allison's waist. "Stiles, do you want a ride?" Stiles' old jeep had thrown another tantrum the day before.

Stiles nodded. "Yeah, okay," he said, and pulled himself up from where he was sandwiched on the couch between Erica and Derek. Erica was too content to mind much; she just slumped over a little further until her head rested against Derek's arm. It wasn't that far to fall, actually; she and Derek must not have been giving Stiles much room at all. 

"Night Erica. Derek," Stiles added, with a look back at them. His shoulders seemed a bit stiff, which was preposterous, as it was an extremely comfortable couch. Hell, Stiles had probably picked it out - he'd picked a lot of the new shit the summer Derek and Peter had renovated the Hale mansion. 

"Good night, Stiles," Erica mumbled. "Uh, you too," she added, for Scott and Allison. Derek didn't say anything. Probably nodded stoically, or something. 

The three of them left. Derek nudged Erica with his elbow - not to dislodge her, just a playful (and yeah, obnoxious) way to check in and be physical, and _damn_ , but she really loved that Derek Hale was a stealth cuddler. Freaking hilarious. 

"You're pretty comfortable where you are," he said after a minute, voice even, and maybe a little amused. "But you're not as tired as you're pretending."

"Nah," she acknowledged, though she stayed slumped against Derek. He didn't seem to mind that she was comfortable. 

"Something on your mind?" 

"Pretty shit thing that almost happened there," Erica said. "Forced to marry Prince Humperdinck."

Derek's frown came through in his voice. "But you were asl - you've seen the movie before? Why were we watching it?" and Erica snorted. 

"Derek," she said, and huffed a bit. "I think you may have missed the point. You could watch _The Princess Bride_ a thousand times, and it wouldn't be enough. Clearly you will need to watch it again." She scooted a little closer, closing the small space they'd allowed Stiles by sliding down until her ass was in the dip in the cushion that Stiles had been sitting in. Her head rested on Derek's shoulder, now, rather than in the vague neighborhood of his elbow. "Anyway, back on topic: arranged marriages, and how they are horrible."

"Okay?"

"So. Do you remember that time when I was sixteen years old, and I kissed you, and you kissed me back?" and for a half-second, he went still against her.

After that frozen moment Derek abruptly sat a little taller, dislodging her head from his shoulder. She looked up at him, but didn't move away. He seemed to be attempting to look forbidding. "Yeah, I remember. I told you not to do it again."

"Do you remember why?"

He didn't answer. 

She smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Of course you remember why."

_I have someone else in mind for you._

Erica made a little humming sound. She stretched her hand a bit, her fingers spread, long, then placed her fingertips very lightly over his knee. She walked her fingers up his thigh, slow and deliberate. She didn't bring out the wolf claws - she'd calmed down since the crazy bitch days of her immediate post-transformation, and one of the things she'd learned since then was that those kind of theatrics were more...obvious, than they were effective. The kind of thing that, if a dude were doing it, would make her throw around words like 'overcompensation.'

Derek looked down at her, his mouth tight and eyebrows raised, annoyed and nearing angry - but not putting her in her place. Interesting.

She looked down at her fingernails over his thigh, and then relaxed her hand, flattened her palm to the denim; relaxed. A concession. "Who was it?" she asked.

"I think you've figured that out," Derek said.

"Yeah," she said. "Stiles."

Derek shifted underneath her hand. 

"I wouldn't have minded, you know."

"I know," he replied. "I watched you, before I chose you. Your...crush, on Stiles - it was a point in your favor."

She looked up, genuinely surprised. "Before you even bit me? You were looking for a mate for someone who wasn't even in your pack?" she asked, and he actually looked pained at that. 

It took him a minute to reply. "No, actually," he said. "When I - you and Stiles, I thought it might help draw McCall into the pack. But that whole idea came later. I didn't think Scott would need much persuading, back when I turned you three; I didn't even start to realize how against it he was until...well. _Later_." Derek frowned, and Erica held her breath. Weirdly, given the topic and the press of their arms together, she thought he almost seemed to have forgotten who he was talking to. There was something open about him just then, in a way she almost never got to see. He looked like he was remembering a wound - long since scabbed over and healed, of course, but it was proof of a one-time vulnerability all the same.

And maybe that made sense. Having been part of a stable and - yes - loving pack for years now, she could see why the memory of that time, before they'd truly drawn together, with a hunter's war they hadn't provoked and a kanima they didn't understand, and then Peter coming - when no one knew what he was doing with them (not even Peter, really) - that must have been harder than she'd realized for Derek, at the time. She hadn't known how much better it could be. Pack was everything now.

She hesitated, reluctant to press her original topic. Derek was better now at explaining himself when he needed something done, better at taking input and advice, but even so, he had never shared so much of his inner thought processes with Erica. Even six years later, the inside perspective on old information was fascinating. 

Derek broke out of his musing, continued, "When I chose you, it just..." he shrugged. "You had good taste. It was a good sign. I was looking for a more sensible note to add to the pack." He laughed, dryly. "It didn't work out quite as I'd planned, so I had to keep looking."

She laughed. "And then Boyd," she said, and Derek nodded. "Yeah," Erica continued, "I...went a little crazy." 

She tapped his thigh one more time and removed her hand, crossing her arms over her chest. Okay, hugging herself. She let her head fall back to his shoulder and tried not to remember the girl she'd been. "You gave me everything I wanted, Derek. Everything. I wasn't alone anymore, and I wasn't weak, I was..." She closed her eyes, but only saw a rock wall in a high school gym, and opened them again. "And I didn't want _anything_ from before. Not if I'd wanted it before."

Without a word, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. He lingered there a moment, then rested his chin on the top of her head. For just a moment, her eyes drifted closed, and she smiled. 

"And I was never sensible," she added, and he laughed quietly.

She snuggled in closer, her head in the crook of his neck, and he put an arm around her to make it more comfortable for both of them, their heads still close. Puppy piles were the best. "Derek. Why didn't you just turn Stiles?" 

He sighed, sounding more exasperated than anything else. "He wouldn't have wanted it."

"So?" she asked, and then heard Derek's chest rumble in a half-hearted, probably unthinking growl. 

"Ah, no. The things that make him good at pack are -" Derek cut off, maybe rethinking how best to explain. "To retain his value to me - to the pack - he'd have to be...seduced. Willing," he finished, and Erica would like a medal for not laughing her ass off. 

"Okay," she said, very mildly. "So, then. Seduced. Me and Stiles. Why didn't we go there?"

Derek lifted his head. "He wouldn't have wanted you," he said curtly. 

"No," she snapped, and then continued very, very carefully: "He wouldn't. Not when I was first turned. He was hung up on Lydia, and I was a raging psycho bitch. Though," she couldn't resist adding, with the sweetest of smiles, "I maintain that that is and has always been his fundamental type."

A beat passed, and then Derek stood abruptly. Wound together as they were, the move sent her sprawled in the opposite direction a little, and she scowled up at him with her best sleepy cranky puppy face. 

He glared down at her, tense. He was probably preparing a dismissal, a good night. 

Tough shit. 

Derek glowered. "So what is this, then? You wanted to date Stiles?"

Erica sank back into the cushions, stubbornly comfortable, which (weirdly) felt almost like a kind of upper ground, despite the lower vantage point. "Remember where this conversation started? I think you're very aware of where my...affections went." 

That stopped Derek short. He took a step back. "That. That was. Only natural, temporary. A lot of new -" and she took pity on him.

"Yeah, growing pains. Pretty meaningless in the scheme of things. Like a crush on a teacher. Or like the crush you have when the sheriff's kid tries to defend you from bullies in the sixth grade, gets swirlied for it, and then just forgets like it was nothing. Goes on with his life," she said.

"That...sounds like Stiles," Derek said, looking at her oddly. 

"Yeah. But it's not like we interacted much." She locked eyes with Derek. "Not like college. Because I think I could have done it when we were eighteen, you know. When you all were here, and he and I were at Community, and Lydia was at Berkeley. That's when we first really became friends."

Derek paused. "When -"

" _Yeah_. When Allison's cousin was in town, and we were all worried about new hunters, and Scott was going distant again. Would have been helpful, right?"

His face was going angry and expressionless again. 

"Would have been the perfect time to ask me, Derek. Or order me. Why didn't you?"

"Good night, Erica," he said, and stalked toward the kitchen. 

She got up off the couch and followed him. "I liked him again by then, really liked him, I actually _knew_ him, then, Derek, and I think he liked me, too, I could have - why didn't you -"

"Why didn't _you_?" Derek asked flatly, turning to face her. Erica ran into his chest (god, his fucking muscles), but she stood her ground. "If you wanted him," he asked, and took a step into her space, "and you could have had him," and he backed her up another step, "then why didn't you _take_ -" and he backed her against the kitchen wall, his face a sharp angry mask, " _what you wanted._ " 

She could feel his breath against her lips. 

Erica took a deep breath, unable to look him in the eye, both because everything about him demanded her submission at that moment and because his mouth was really fucking distracting. And he knew it. He was using it. She took another shuddering breath, closed her eyes, and breathed out her answer: "I wanted someone else more," she whispered, and tried to keep that someone else's face in her mind. It was easier than she might have thought, made it easier to steal herself and look up into Derek's eyes, blown angry red, "And Stiles was just _gone_ for - for someone -"

Derek took an abrupt step back, his eyes dimming normal. "Who?"

And Erica relaxed, all but collapsed back against the wall, a puppet with all her strings cut. She let out a shaky laugh. "Oh, honey." 

Derek crossed his arms over his chest. "I didn't ask you because-"

"Because it wouldn't even have occurred to you by then," Erica cut in, still a little giddy with relief. She was going for a smirk, but decided the little giggle she managed instead would have to do. "Because he was finally _legal_."

Derek snarled. " _I didn't ask you_ because-"

"And maybe a little because you knew that I'd have told you to fuck off, by then." Erica grinned. "Notice that I haven't asked why you _ever_ thought you could choose who I'd be mated to?"

He rolled his eyes. "I could have. At first," and Erica's mirth died. 

"Yeah," she said. "You could have. You saved my life." She shrugged. "When we first met, I'd have done anything you asked." 

And Derek looked a little embarrassed, but not surprised. He'd known that. She had, too. Even then she'd known it was one of his criteria - he'd picked people who needed saving.

After a moment, Derek said, very quietly, "But when you left, that first year -" He stopped, started again. "When you and Boyd came back - when you chose us. That meant..." he shook his head. 

She smiled, suddenly so, so happy. "You thanked us then," she said. 

"No. But I should have."

She touched a hand to his face. "You did," she said, "you all did. Just not with words." She leaned up to kiss him, just once - okay, maybe twice - and Derek let her. She kept it gentle and entirely platonic - though she added a nip at the end, with a small laugh - just a reminder of that girl in the warehouse. Just to be a jackass. 

She never claimed to be perfect.

"Derek," she said, and let a little bit of the bitch slide into her smile. "How long are you going to make Stiles wait?"

And he grinned back at her, and that, that there, that was why she loved being part of this pack. She never could have imagined that look on his face six years ago. That was what pack could do. "When you own up to what _you_ want, Reyes, so will I," he said.

So: "Boyd," she said promptly. 

Derek blinked. 

It just poured out of her, an exhilarating rush of honesty. "Since we came back together, I think, though I didn't notice until I went to Community. He wasn't around all the time anymore. It sucked."

Derek mostly looked confused. Erica felt her happiness start to seep away. 

She looked away, glared at their fridge. Their stupid fridge magnets were stupid. "Do you think he-"

"Yes," Derek cut in. "Um, _yes_."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I know he wants me every once in awhile, I do have a working nose, Derek, I _mean_ -"

"Seriously, Erica. Yes. Talk to him. And, uh. Not to me. Please."

"Sure, okay." She took a deep breath. "Right after you talk to Stiles."

Derek scowled. 

And Erica smiled: "Alphas first."

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: http://teenwolfkink.livejournal.com/6131.html?thread=5330419
> 
> It was one of those very long prompts that I usually find difficult to write to, but I think this person just accidentally ended up describing something I wanted to write. This was my attempt to figure out how I felt about Erica. Hey, it's more than the show ever did! 
> 
> Apparently I liked her.


End file.
